The Spectrum of Consciousness

This book launched the transpersonal psychology revolution. In a profound, comprehensive, and unique study of consciousness, Wilber was the first to suggest a systematic way that the great psychological systems of the West could be integrated with the noble contemplative traditions of the East.

To this day, The Spectrum of Consciousness remains the unequivocal classic in the area of transpersonal psychology, and has been the prominent reference point for all subsequent attempts at integrating psychology and spirituality. Like radiation and light, consciousness, suggest Wilber, establishes a multiplicity of aspects as it 'steps down' into time and space. Thus, as a spectrum, it can be studied legitimately on one or more of its 'wavelengths'. Viewing consciousness in this way, we can see that seemingly disparate disciplines each speak to a different wavelength of awareness.

'From Chapter VII - 'Integrating the Shadow' (p. 206)':

" Thus the problem is not to get rid of any symptom, but rather to deliberately and consciously try to increase that symptom, to deliberately and consciously experience it fully! If you are depressed, try to be more depressed. If you are tense, make yourself even tenser. If you feel guilty, increase your feelings of guilt - and we mean that literally! For by doing you are, for the very first time, acknowledging and even aligning yourself with your Shadow, and hence are doing consciously what you have heretofore been doing unconsciously. When you, as a personal experiment, consciously throw every bit of yourself into actively and deliberately trying to produce your present symptoms, you have in effect thrown your persona and Shadow together. You have consciously contacted and aligned yourself with your opposites, and, in short, re-discovered your Shadow. "

Philosopher Ken Wilber has been mapping the territory of consciousness since the 1970s. His first book, The Spectrum of Consciousness, published by Quest Books, launched the transpersonal psychology movement. Wilber's current best-sellers are Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, and A Brief History of Everything.
Other titles by the author:
- The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development
- Up from Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution